X399 Fatal1ty disable boot device enumeration?

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   I have a Samsung drive with OPAL 2.0 encryption that I was using with a 2011 ASRock motherboard just fine. I upgraded to X399 and discovered, much to my dismay, that it enumerates boot devices on every boot. How do I disable this?
For background, the way OPAL works is that on power-up it presents itself as a hard drive with a very small partition and a boot-loader that boots to a password prompt. After entering the password, the computer reboots. After the reboot, all of your normal partitions are visible and decrypted.

My problem is that when it boots and only sees the OPAL partition, it permanently reshuffles the boot order to be my hard drive and then my UEFI partition, so after the reboot it tries to boot from the MBR on my hard drive instead of from my UEFI partition.

I want to permanently set it to try my UEFI partition first (which fails until after encryption), followed by my drive's MBR (which fails after decryption). This worked fine on my much older ASRock motherboard. How do I stop it from changing the order permanently when it doesn't see a device as bootable anymore?

Author	Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic
Sydius Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 16 Nov 2017 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote Sydius Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: X399 Fatal1ty disable boot device enumeration? Posted: 19 Nov 2017 at 1:37am
	I have a Samsung drive with OPAL 2.0 encryption that I was using with a 2011 ASRock motherboard just fine. I upgraded to X399 and discovered, much to my dismay, that it enumerates boot devices on every boot. How do I disable this? For background, the way OPAL works is that on power-up it presents itself as a hard drive with a very small partition and a boot-loader that boots to a password prompt. After entering the password, the computer reboots. After the reboot, all of your normal partitions are visible and decrypted. My problem is that when it boots and only sees the OPAL partition, it permanently reshuffles the boot order to be my hard drive and then my UEFI partition, so after the reboot it tries to boot from the MBR on my hard drive instead of from my UEFI partition. I want to permanently set it to try my UEFI partition first (which fails until after encryption), followed by my drive's MBR (which fails after decryption). This worked fine on my much older ASRock motherboard. How do I stop it from changing the order permanently when it doesn't see a device as bootable anymore?

Sydius Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 16 Nov 2017 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote Sydius Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Nov 2017 at 1:56am
	Hmm... nevermind. It's fine now. I don't know how I fixed it. I went into the UEFI and disabled all of the non-bootable hard drives, CD drive, etc. and disabled the splash screen. I have no idea why that would make a difference.

parsec Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996	Post Options Post Reply Quote parsec Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Nov 2017 at 11:17am
	I'm curious exactly which ASRock board from 2011 you were using? As well as what version of Windows? Also, what version of Windows are you using with the X399 board? If your old board had UEFI firmware, it was one of the first that did (generally, Intel 6 series chipset boards such as the P67 or Z68.) But that firmware was primitive relative to UEFI firmware, and still behaved more as BIOS firmware did. BIOS firmware would list all drives in the boot order, even if they did not have any system/boot partition on them. The latest UEFI firmware won't do that, particularly if it is not used in legacy mode, meaning with CSM disabled. IMO it makes more sense not having non-bootable drives in the boot order. If your old board had BIOS firmware, then that easily explains the difference in behavior with the X399 board. But in your case using OPAL with newer UEFI firmware, and apparently generally booting in legacy mode, removing the other drives from the boot order stopped the UEFI from putting the drives into an order it felt made sense. This could also be related to the X399's UEFI AMD storage Option ROM having a problem with OPAL. If you care, I'd ask Samsung about this, although it may take a while to get through to a level of support that can actually help.